World's longest-serving death row prisoner to be given retrial

SENTENCE: Iwao Hakamada has spent 45 years in solitary confinement while waiting to be executed [REUTERS]

Iwao Hakamada, 78, was convicted of murdering a family in 1966 but his potential release comes as the Shizuoka District Court in Japan said DNA analysis showed investigators probably fabricated evidence

A court spokesman said: "The court suspends the death sentence and confinement of the person who had been ruled guilty."

Hakamada was sentenced to death in 1968 for killing a family and setting fire to their home and has spent nearly half a centiry in solitary confinement

He had initially denied the killings but he later confessed.

However, his admission came after beatings and a brutal polie interrogation and he later retracted his confession.

The bloodstained clothes that Hakamada was said to have worn in the killings did not fit him and the blood was apparently too fresh to have come from when the murders took place.

One of the judges on the panel that originally convicted him said the decision was wrong but was not able to convince his colleagues to agree with him.

Hakamada'sdeath sentence was confirmed in 1980 but he has spent years languishing in his cell while his sister Hideko, 81, tirelessly campaigned for his freedom.

DELIGHT: Hamada's relatives have campaigned for his freedom for years [REUTERS]

“If ever there was a case that merits a retrial, this is it”

Amnesty International

Reacting to the news of her brother's impending release, she said: "This happened thanks to all of you who helped us.

"I am just so happy."

A spokesman for Amnesty International said: "Time is running out for Hakamada to receive the fair trial he was denied more than four decades ago.

"If ever there was a case that merits a retrial, this is it.

"Hakamada was convicted on the basis of a forced confession and there remain unanswered questions over recent DNA evidence."

Hakamada is in the Guiness Book of Records for the longest-serving death row inmate, having served 45 out of his 48 years in jail there.

It took 27 years for the Supreme Court to deny his first appeal for a retrial and the newest decision comes after he filed a second appeal in 2008.